The Sports World's Quirkiest Athletes

Over the history of organized sports there have been, uh, quirky athletes. From a belligerent Metta World Peace to a fashionable Dennis Rodman to mum's-never-the-word John Rocker, here's QMI Agency's quirkiest athletes in pro sports.

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Link Gaetz

Sport: Hockey

Claim to fame: Four months after being drafted, Gaetz was arrested for drunk driving and only played 17 games over two seasons with the Minnesota North Stars. On April 2, 1992, Gaetz was involved in a car crash that put him in a coma for eight days. What makes him unique however, is the Hamburger Incident while he was playing in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey. During a game against the Verdun Dragons, the Thetford Mines Isothermic enforcer changed out of his hockey equipment during the first intermission and proceeded to buy a hamburger and eat it.

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Chael Sonnen

Sport: Mixed Martial Arts

Claim to fame: TSN personality Michael Landsberg knows all too well how volatile and unpredictable UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen can be. Nobody knows when Sonnen's behaviour is merely a charade or legitimate, but one thing's for sure, he plead guilty to money laundering in connection with mortgage fraud.

(Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images/AFP)

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Terrell Owens

Sport: Football

Claim to fame: Owens made the touchdown celebration an artform. His gregarious nature sometimes outshined the Klieg lights at the stadiums he played in and burned just as hot too. His fiery personality got him in trouble with the Philadelphia Eagles as well as other teams.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images/AFP

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Chad Johnson

Sport: Football

Claim to fame: It's been a tough go of things for spotlight hogger Chad Johnson. After changing his name from Johnson to Ochocinco and back to Johnson again, he's been cut from the Dolphins and served divorce papers by his wife Evelyn Lozada. His flashy persona has carried him into the WWE, professional bull riding and Dancing With The Stars.

(Joe Robbins/Getty Images/AFP)

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Vinnie Jones

Sport: Soccer

Claim to fame: Most know Vinnie Jones as the actor in such Guy Ritchie man-films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Irony would rear its head when Jones played a British hooligan in the film Euro Trip. Jones was a member of the Wimbeldon class of ballers known as "The Crazy Gang". They were a macho group of players who took their low-rung team all the way to the top in the 1980s and '90s.

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Ron Artest

Sport: Basketball

Claim to fame: His current alias can be interpreted as an oxymoron, for Mr. Peace is quite the bombastic athlete on the court. It's reported, while he played for the Bulls, he had a bottle of cognac in his locker. Many will remember his brawl with Ben Wallace while with the Pacers, and the subsequent punching of fan A.J. Shackleford. Add domestic abuse allegations while in Sacramento, and showing up to practice in a bath robe to that list.

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Theo Fleury

Sport: Hockey

Claim to fame: He was wired for sound, as some people would say, but Fleury's feisty side was what fans appreciated about him. He battled his inner demons, and credits his second wife Jennifer with turning his life around.

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Bill Lee

Sport: Baseball

Claim to fame: Anything that floated into Bill "Spaceman" Lee's head would eventually come out of his mouth. He openly supported Maoist China, population control and Greenpeace. He also threatened to bite an umpire's ear off, saying, "I would have Van Gogh'd him".

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Gilles Gratton

Sport: Hockey

Claim to fame: Known as "Gratoony the Loony" by his peers in both the NHL and WHA, Gratton was known to growl at opponents and hiss like a cat at adversaries during fights. Gratton once told his teammates he was the reincarnated soul of a Spanish Inquisition soldier. His mask, which he called a tiger face, is considered one of the NHL's scariest masks.

(Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images/AFP)

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Bill Romanowski

Sport: Football

Claim to fame: Romanwski tallied a long list of NFL fines during his career, in particular during the 1997 season where he kicked Arizona Cardinals fullback Larry Centers in the head in one game, and broke Carolina QB Kerry Collins' jaw in a helmet-on-helmet collision. It was later revealed that Romanowski had been using an anabolic steroid along with a synthetic testosterone treatment called, "The Cream".

(Clay McLachlan/REUTERS)

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Dennis Rodman

Sport: Basketball

Claim to fame: Green hair. Penchant for cross-dressing. More piercings than a German industrial music festival. But the NBA rebounding legend's quirkiness runs deeper. He had to pay a cameraman he assaulted at a Chicago Bulls-Minnesota Timberwolves game $200,000. He's also been fined and charged with domestic abuse on numerous occasions.

(Brian Snyder/REUTERS Files)

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Ron Hextall

Sport: Hockey

Claim to fame: Never mention the name Chris Chelios around this former Flyers goalie. The aggressive netminder went after the then Montreal defenceman for laying a dirty elbow on teammate Bryan Propp. Hextall's stickwork would be admired by any lumberjack, as he chopped down more players than the plaid-wearing gents do trees. That would also explain why he had quite a few multiple-game suspensions.

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John Rocker

Sport: Baseball

Claim to fame: Some athletes just don't know when to shut up. Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker illustrated that after an interview with Sports Illustrated that shed a light on his views of New York City. Rocker made racist, sexist and homophobic comments in his tete-a-tete with SI reporters. He also did his very best to kick up any hornets' nest from NYC to Dallas, Texas.

(Mike Segar/REUTERS)

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Mark Fidrych

Sport: Baseball

Claim to fame: "The Bird" strutted his stuff with the Detroit Tigers during the 1970s. Bordering on OCD behaviour, Fidrych would "manicure" the mound filling in the marks left from previous pitchers' cleats. Fidrych had his own personal catcher, rookie Bruce Kimm, and he was one of the first pitchers to initiate the curtain call, now commonplace in today's game.

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Mario Balotelli

Sport: Soccer

Claim to fame: Before there was his topless tough-guy pose from the Euro game versus Germany, there was setting his house on fire with fireworks, touring a women's prison just to have a look around and of course the photos with Mafia.

(Leonhard Foeger/REUTERS)

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John McEnroe

Sport: Tennis

Claim to fame: Nasty Nastase was only the beginning of temper flares in tennis. When John McEnroe entered the tour, the uptight clenched harder. His on-court rages earned him the nickname: Superbrat.

Claim to fame: Sean Avery is best described as a super pest. His on-ice antics during his charade in front of Martin Brodeur is probably his most memorable act of slapstick comedy, but his off-ice persona has given him a good case of foot in mouth disease, in particular his "sloppy seconds" comment of ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert dating then Calgary Flames D-man Dion Phaneuf. He was also accused of uttering a racial slur at Edmonton's Georges Laraque.

(Shaun Best/REUTERS)

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John Daly

Sport: Golf

Claim to fame: Everyone has had to bare-knuckle fight their inner demons, just not in the public eye so overtly. Daly battled alcoholism, substance abuse, weight loss and marital problems over a span of 15 years. Even though Long John has had one heck of a handicap on the links, he's still a fan favourite.

(Stephen Dunn/Getty Images/AFP)

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Marat Safin

Sport: Tennis

Claim to fame: Russian tennis star Marat Safin is a member of the 1,000 club - meaning he smashed over a thousand tennis rackets over his professional career. If Nastase was the golden age of temper tantrums, and McEnroe the silver, Safin was the Modern Era's smash brother.

(Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS)

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Patrick Roy

Sport: Hockey

Claim to fame: Though he's seen as hot-headed, quick to anger and combative, Roy's real quirk is his superstitious nature. He would talk to his goal posts and avoided skating over the red and blue lines, except for the time he skated to centre ice with the puck as an Av.

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Diego Maradona

Sport: Soccer

Claim to fame: Playing for Boca Juniors is crazy in its own right, but Diego Maradona's antics both on and off the field also gets him a nod in the quirk direction. He was addicted to cocaine and has openly supported controversial Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. During the 2010 World Cup, at a press conference prior to the Argentina-Germany bout, Maradona mistook German forward Thomas Müller as a ball boy.

(REUTERS Files)

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Ilie NÄstase

Sport: Tennis

Claim to fame: Outside of his Eastern European charms, Nasty Nastase had a tendancy for throwing tantrums on the court and making the prim British tennis folk blush. He once said, "As long as I can get angry, then I play well. If I play well, I can beat anybody. I am happy because I am getting angry."

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O.J. Simpson

Sport: Football

Claim to fame: If you were watching Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks, you might remember a white Ford Bronco travelling at a mediocre pace along an L.A. freeway interrupting your basketball intake. Outside of Juice's scenic jaunt with Al Cowlings, he was on trial for allegedly murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Though he was acquitted he eventually wound up in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery. He was scheduled for a 33-year vacation at Lovelock Correctional Center.

(Jae C. Hong/REUTERS)

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Mike Tyson

Sport: Boxing

Claim to fame: Since 1985 it has never been a dull moment for "Iron" Mike Tyson. From the allegations of rape by Desiree Washington to the spousal abuse of Robin Givens in 1989, the first five years were rough for the soft-spoken pugilist. Then in 1997 the scales were tipped in crazy's favour when Tyson cannibalized Evander Holyfield's right ear in that infamous Las Vegas brawl.

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images/AFP

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Gilbert Arenas

Sport: Basketball

Claim to fame: Have you heard the one about the shotgun in a violin case at the Verizon Center? That little number was Gilbert Arenas, who made one, well maybe more than mistake, by keeping unloaded firearms in his locker. He not only violated the NBA's policy, but given he was playing for the Washington Wizards, he also violated District of Columbia ordinances as well. He has since put the event in his past and now plays for the Memphis Grizzlies.